macro world

 

06-11-25 Surely it's possible to have a fun afternoon out to Warriston cemetery, even if the sun is loitering behind the clouds and there is little in the way of wildlife? Yes and no. I had some fun on Thursday forcing myself to use only the macro lens, but the photos only just came up to snuff and not by much. Also I ended up playing with the magpies and crows who are always up for some peanuts, taking burst mode shots of them swooping for nuts off gravestones. Which is a quick way of filling the SD card, but the results are dangerously close to dull, like the weather. (I'm not really selling this!) 😆

harlequin ladybird

I really love the OM Systems 90mm macro lens. Even though it is not Panasonic it works excellently on the G9 body (auto-focus and animal detection are perfect) and gives a window into a world far too small to see with pensioner's eyes. I haven't used it much recently but thought it might be the way to go today as there wasn't much in the way of birds or insects. Usually if you rummage about the leaves and gravestones you can find some small creepy-crawly to shoot. Other than just endless amounts of harlequin ladybirds. 

I have been using Obsidentify to ID these bugs
this one gets a 65% certainty Muscidae indet
which suggests an inconclusive housefly

not many orange ladybirds about - I saw fewer than 5

the size difference between this harlequin and the black job
suggested the smaller was a pine ladybird

Obsidentify agreed - 100% Pine ladybird

Strophosoma melanogrammum or Nut leaf weevil

another orange ladybird

a non-specific aphid

common striped woodlouse

harlequin

I thought this might be another Pine
but the white spot on the head says harlequin (as does Obsidentify)

Kleidocerys resedae, birch catkin bug

Orchesella cinta, belted springtail

Metellina spec

I would have said sycamore
but I am told these leaves are from a Norway Maple (100%!)

ahh now this was ID-ed as sycamore
Both the Norway maple and Sycamore are acers so are probably related
the gaps in my knowledge exceed the gaps in my ignorance

(as usual) a partial glimpse of a bird looking like a bird-of-prey
turned out to be a wood pigeon

if all else fails - the crows always enjoy some peanuts

love the blues and purples in their plumage

With the weather getting colder and food being more scarce the magpies will risk snatching peanuts from gravestones that the crows consider their territory. The crows will eat a couple of nuts then carry off half a dozen to plant around the place for later. While absent, the magpies swoop in but are careful to avoid the crows as they return from stashing nuts. Magpies are far too commonplace to get excited about, but I do like their dynamic plumage and shots (if I can get them) of the birds arriving and leaving. There's far more going on than just black and white here. I set the camera to pre-burst mode and if something noteworthy happens I can record it a second after it happens.

I shot far too many photos - maybe 1400 - of crows and magpies. Then whittled that down to a few hundred which I ran together in the video at the bottom of the page.

magpie leaving as crow returns

The light was going from bad to ugly so I left the crows and magpies to it. I'd given them most of a bag of peanuts and no doubt they were dispersed all around the local area. Hopefully the birds and squirrels will find them throughout the Winter. I checked out the row of pine trees on the way out and took a few more macro shots of the bugs on the stones below.

sawfly larva

rough woodlouse

hoverfly larva eating an aphid

aphid of sort being eaten by that hoverfly larva

Obsidentify couldn't ID this hoverfly larva

very small springtail possibly Dicyrtomina saundersi
I lost sight of this and it escaped, much to my disappointment!

another rough woodlouse

Exciting as this has been I must get home and have some soup for lunch. Interesting to see loads of oyster catchers and a few curlews on the playing fields at Goldenacre. I see more of these birds on playing fields than ever seen down at the sea. Probably because you'd find more big fat earthworms there, than on a beach.